Absorbent articles for personal hygiene, such as disposable diapers, training pants, adult incontinence undergarments, and/or sanitary napkins are designed to absorb and contain bodily exudates, in particular large quantities of urine, runny BM, and/or menses. These absorbent articles may typically comprise several layers providing different functions, for example, a topsheet, a backsheet, one or more acquisition/distribution layers, and an absorbent core disposed between the topsheet and the backsheet.
Substrates, such as nonwoven substrates or laminates comprising nonwoven substrates, have been provided as topsheets, outer covers, acquisition/distribution layers, and/or other portions of absorbent articles. The substrates may comprise a plurality of three-dimensional features, such as a plurality of projections and a plurality of recesses, for example.
Substrates comprising three-dimensional features may also be useful in other areas, such as in the areas of cleaning wipes, dusting wipes, filtration media, and/or any other suitable areas.
Typical, substrates comprising a plurality of three-dimensional features are wound on a core and stored in the form of a spool. The spool can then be unwound and converted for use in making any suitable products, such as components of absorbent articles, wipes, cleaning items, and/or filtration media. Generally, the substrates comprising a plurality of three-dimensional features are helically wound around a core from a first end of the core to a second end of the core and then from the second end to the first end (sometimes many times) to form a plurality of helically wound wraps of the substrate around the core and in the spool. Owing to the helical winding of the wraps and the pressure exerted on some of the inner wraps, the three-dimensional features of the substrates may not be properly preserved during winding and storage. The helical winding of the wraps of the substrates results in non-nesting or limited nesting of the three-dimensional features in adjacent wraps of the substrates. This non-nesting or limited nesting can result in three-dimensional features in that substrate that are at least partially collapsed or compressed when unwound from the spool. The at least partially collapsed or compressed three-dimensional features may not be consumer preferred for performance and/or aesthetic reasons. What is needed are methods of winding substrates comprising three-dimensional features that provide for at least partial nesting (between the various adjacent wraps) of at least a majority of the three-dimensional features of the substrates to provide more aesthetically pleasing and/or better performing substrates having three-dimensional features that are not overly compressed or collapsed.